Issue(s): Fantastic Four #217
Cover Date: Apr 80
Title: "Masquerade!"
Credits:
Bill Mantlo - Writer
John Byrne - Penciler
Joe Sinnott - Inker

Review/plot:
The Fantastic Four vs. H.E.R.B.I.E. the robot!

Of course, H.E.R.B.I.E. has been taken over by Doctor Sun, which explains why he's been acting so suspiciously lately. Sun also has control over the Baxter Building's defense systems, so it's not as quick a fight as you'd imagine.

Also this issue, Johnny Storm goes to a discotheque and gets mesmerized by the Dazzler!

As part of the original cross-promotions, Dazzler was supposed to appear in the X-Men, the FF, and Spider-Man. I'm not sure if, at this point, they were still involved in the negotiations or if they were just going through with the original plan, but it's not a bad way to generate buzz for a character.

Byrne's art is quite good but unfortunately the writing doesn't match it.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - death of the original H.E.R.B.I.E.. Dazzler's introductory circuit.

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• H.E.R.B.I.E. got possessed by Doctor Sun during the Xandarian/Skrull War depicted in Fantastic Four #206-214.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Obviously, the folks at Marvel REALLY didn't like Herbie from the FF animated series.

Gotta admit, I was glad that Herbie was put out to pasture, but sad it had to come at Doctor Sun's expense as well. Sure he was a disembodied brain, but Sun was the catalyst for a brief babyface turn by Dracula that saw the Count actually working with Blade. That's worth some bad guy props in my book.